Wiccan Hill
by Jennifer A. Johnson
Summary: season 9, episode 1. In a misguided attempt to seek their forgiveness, Billie projects The Charmed Ones into a Hell Dimension. Meanwhile, an old friend returns.


WICCAN HILL  
a Charmed fan fiction by Jennifer A. Johnson

DISCLAIMER: "Charmed", "The Charmed Ones" and other related entities are owned, (TM) and (c) by CONSTANCE M. BURGE, AARON SPELLING Television Inc (A Paramount / Viacom Co.), and The WB (AOL Time Warner Company). All Rights reserved. This website, its operators, and any content on this site relating to "Charmed" are not authorized by Aaron Spelling Productions. No copyright infringement is intended. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of this material in any form is expressly prohibited.

TEASER.

Halliwell Manor is a mess. The much abused grandfather clock lies on the floor in ruins. Everywhere you look, there's broken glass and overturned furniture. Ash swirls around in the atmosphere, making it eerily reminiscent of a nuclear winter. Piper and Phoebe cower behind the upturned couch; the only thing between them and their latest upper-level demon. An unnatural wind whips at the sisters' hair and tears at their clothes. There's a deep cut above Piper's eyebrow to match the scar already there.

Piper flicks a wrist over the couch. The demon, Ashlar, reels a bit, stunned, but doesn't explode. Piper's eyes go wide. "Not good."

Ashlar looks down at his chest, which isn't even singed a little bit. There's an evil gleam in his eye as he lifts his head and smirks. "That all you got, witch?" He fires a fireball at the couch. Piper and Phoebe duck as the couch rocks on impact. Bits of cushion and upholstery flutter around the sisters, and smoke fills the room to join the ash already there.

Phoebe smiles brightly over at Piper. "At least the wind stopped." Piper shoots Phoebe a look that shuts her up. Another fireball hits the couch. Phoebe coughs a bit from the smoke and waves her hand as if to clear the air. "This can't be good for my hair."

Piper ignores her and tries her molecular manipulation thing again. Ashlar shoots back, "You missed me!" Piper makes a noise of disgust as Ashlar prepares another fireball.

Paige orbs in with the Book of Shadows. "Well, it's about time!" Phoebe chides her. Paige shrugs, and all three sisters duck as another fireball rocks the couch.

Piper gestures irritably for the Book. "Vanquish now, bitch later!" The Charmed Ones recite the spell together: "Demon of dimensions galore/ It's fire that you adore/ But with this vanquish, you shall rise no more!"

The fire starts in the chest and spreads fast. Ashlar looks down at his body as he is engulfed in flames. He screams and explodes. Piper leaps up to exclaim, "HA!" Phoebe and Paige a glance and snicker. Piper tells them to "Shush."

A shadow creeps over the top of The Charmed Ones. They look up to see The Source towering over them. "My turn," he growls, and shoots a his special brand of fireball at Piper. The rotating axis hits her, hard, throwing her back over the couch. She hits the wall with a sickening splat. She slides to the ground and is still.

Phoebe yells Piper's name and hops over the couch and tries to run to her. The Source fires a lightening bolt. Phoebe's body jolts and jerks as lightening shoots through her body. Piper groans and fights unconsciousness as Phoebe collapses beside her. "No!" Paige cries out.

The Source turns to the stunned Paige. "Two down," he snarls. He raises his hand at Paige.

Paige raises her own hand to the chandelier. "Chandelier!" she shouts. The Source looks up as the chandelier crashes onto his head. Paige orbs out with the Book, intending to go to her sisters and get them out of there so she can hopefully heal them, but The Source just rises to his feet. He flicks his wrist and telekinetically sends her orbs into the wall behind her sisters. Paige tumbles to the ground in a heap.

The Source glides across the room. His black robe billows around him. Again, he towers over the fallen Charmed Ones. Piper struggles to raise her head. Blood trickles from her mouth, her nose, her ears. It hurts her to breathe, much less to talk, but still she manages to get out, "You're... not... touching... my sisters."

The Source chuckles, amused. "I like you. Too bad I have to kill you now." He conjures the fireball to end all fireballs between his taloned hands. He raises his arms high over his head. Piper shields her little sisters as best she can and closes her eyes to prepare herself. The Source hurls the massive fireball down.

The Charmed Ones are incinerated on impact.

---

Phoebe gasps and startles awake. It takes her a moment to realize where she is, at home, in bed. "I'm alive," Phoebe yodels. She pats herself down, delighting in the feel of her own body, glad to be here, glad to be anywhere. "Ooh. Ooh. Oooh!"

"Would you like to be alone?" comes the sleepy, but sexy, voice beside her. Normally, Phoebe would play along, maybe baby talk something like, "No. That's what I have you for." But not tonight. Coop immediately senses that something is wrong. He sits up and puts his arms around her. "Hey, are you all right?"

Phoebe doesn't look at him. She doesn't seem to be looking at anything. "No. No, I'm not," she says, her voice flat. "I'm dead. Again."

END TEASER.

CREDITS.

Starring:

Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell

Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews

and Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell

Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt

ACT ONE.

Guest starring:

Kaley Cuoco as Billie Jenkins

Zachary Quinto as Ashlar

James Read as Victor Bennett

Jason & Kristopher Simmons as Wyatt Halliwell

Peter Woodward as The Source

with Ivan Sergi as Henry Mitchell

and Victor Webster as Coop

Wyatt orbs into the middle of the sun room. His dead eyes stare at nothing at all. He senses his Auntie Paige nearby, so he orbs right back out. Paige orbs in just as Wyatt's orbs vanish. "Son of a bitch!" She is almost panting to keep up with him. "How'd that little dude get so fast?"

Piper gives Paige a disapproving look. She covers Chris' ears, whom she and Leo are playing with on the floor. "Language, Aunt Paige. Little Wiccans have big ears."

"Sorry." Paige grins at Chris. "I'm really not." Chris giggles. Piper gives her another disapproving look. Paige rolls her eyes. "Oh, come on, Piper. You try playing hide-and-go-seek with someone who can orb."

Piper stands. "Wyatt," she says in her most parental voice. Wyatt orbs in immediately. "What did I tell you about using your powers for Personal Gain?" Chris babbles something that sounds like he would be making fun of Wyatt if he could even form a sentence. Wyatt looks up at Piper and sticks out his lower lip. He orbs out. "Wyatt Matthew Halliwell. That's cheating, young man."

"You think so?" Paige says. "Then you're really not gonna like this."

Piper knows where this is going. She just knows Paige that well. "Paige," she says, trying to stop her, "Don't you dare."

"Tag, you're it," Paige says, and orbs out.

"Paige!" Piper calls after her. She stomps her foot. "You get your whitelighter ass back here! Dammit, Paige!"

Paige's disembodied voice floats down from wherever it is whitelighters go when they orb. "Language."

"Ha!" Piper snorts, amused despite herself. Chris babbles something that could be "Ass." Of course, it could be "Pie" too. Piper slips her hair behind her hair and bends down to his level. She picks him up. "Hey there, Pumpkin."

Paige orbs back in. She has her cell phone. "It's Phoebe. She wants me to put it on speaker phone."

Piper shushes Paige. She hands Chris off to Leo. "Would you take Chris to his room so he doesn't have to hear the d-e-m-o-n talk?" she asks, spelling out the word so that the littlest Halliwell won't understand it yet, and hopefully never will.

Leo bounces Chris a little. "Is he a sleepy boy? Yes, he is," he baby talks as he carries Chris up the stairs.

"Wyatt, go with your father, please," Piper calls into the air. She waits a second before adding, "Leo?"

"Got him!" Leo calls back from the boys room. Piper waits for the door to shut, then indicates that Paige continue.

Paige pushes the speaker button on her cell phone. "It's go time," she tells Phoebe.

Phoebe juggles her phone on her shoulder as she drives. "I had a premonition."

"It's bad or you wouldn't be calling." Paige pauses a moment, almost dreading the answer. "Is it bad?"

"It's The Source," is Phoebe's response. "He's back."

"Again?!" Paige and Piper howl together.

"How is he back?!" Paige throws her hands up, exasperated. "We Vanquished him! We sent his sorry ass to the Wasteland! Again!"

"I don't know, but he is," Phoebe tells her helpfully. "Are you at the Manor?" Paige tells her that they are. "I'm coming over."

"We'll be here," Paige assures her. She flips her cell phone shut.

"We're always here," Piper kind of sighs. Paige nods.

---

"Piper hates me," Billie sulks in the mini-Cooper beside Phoebe. She has her arms crossed over her chest. She juts her lip out almost as much as Wyatt did.

Phoebe kind of rolls her eyes and tries to be consoling at the same time. "Piper doesn't hate you. She just--" Billie gives her a look. "All right. She hates you. But can you blame her?"

Billie delves deeper into self-pity. "She's like the Wicked Witch of the West. Only with shinier hair. What does she use, anyway? A cream rinse?"

Phoebe pulls up to the Manor. Piper's Cherokee and Paige's VW Bug are already in the driveway. She parks her mini-Cooper at the curb. "I'll talk to her. Until then, stay out of her way."

Billie waits until Phoebe gets out of the car to mutter, "Can't we just drop a house on her or something?"

---

Phoebe barely enters the Manor with Billie before Piper pounces. "You! Out of my house! Leo!"

Phoebe steps between them in case Piper feels the need to blow Billie up. "Piper…"

"Don't Piper me. That little witch murdered you. And Paige. You may not remember, but I sure as hell do. Leo!" Piper whirls around and storms for the living room, calling her husband's name.

Phoebe looks to Paige for help. "I'm with Piper on this one. Sorry."

Phoebe tires to reason with her, while Billie just stands there, looking all smirky. "Paige, you're her whitelighter."

Paige glares at Billie. Billie glares defiantly back. "Were her whitelighter. Past tense. Now… not so much."

"You can't just turn your back on her. Not now. Not when we need her the most," Phoebe says, trying for a soothing, but convincing tone.

Paige smirks. "Watch me." She deliberately turns her back on Billie and heads for the living room.

Phoebe gestures for Billie to wait there. "Yeah, cause I have nothing better to do," Billie says sarcastically, her arms folded across her chest, her head bobbing. Phoebe gives her a look and goes after Paige.

Phoebe catches up with her sisters in the living room. "Paige, this is The Source. You do remember The Source, don't you?"

Paige stops. She's already sick of Phoebe treating her like the younger sister. The stupid, younger sister. "Mr. Half-faced Guy? Yeah, I think I do."

"She came after my son," Piper quietly reminds them. But it gets both their attentions. "She used the Hollow to steal his powers. He could have been killed."

"That so wasn't my fault!" Billie calls from the foyer. Piper charges in and raises her arms like she's going to blow Billie up. Billie leaps back, her fists raised in a defensive posture.

"Piper!" Phoebe admonishes.

"What? I was only gonna blow her up a little bit," Piper smirks, and Paige tries not to laugh. Piper turns back for the living room. She calls Leo's name again.

"Wicked Witch of the Northwest," Billie mutters, just loud enough for Piper to hear.

"I heard that," Piper calls over her shoulder.

"Well, I said it out loud!" Billie calls back.

Phoebe shoots Billie a look. "Not helping!"

"Not trying to!" Is Billie's witty retort.

Paige sighs. She waves her hand in the air. "Dorm!"

Blue orbs immediately surround Billie. She looks ready to pitch a fit. "Paige!" she shrieks. "Your ass is so kicked!" Paige orbs Billie out.

Paige looks real worried, as in not at all. She joins her sisters in the living room as Piper calls out, "Dammit, Leo!"

Leo hurries down the stairs. Worry flashes in his eyes. "What? What's wrong?"

Piper maintains a calm façade, despite her need to scream. "Oh, nothing, just a little thing called The Source."

"He's back," Phoebe just has to add, as if what Piper said needed clarification.

Leo has the same response as Piper and Paige. "Again?"

Phoebe takes a deep breath. "There's more."

The urge to scream is back and bigger than ever. "Isn't there always?" Piper demands through gritted teeth.

---

Billie flops down on her dorm room bed, the same dorm she hasn't seen for a very long time. She isn't even sure if her roommate would recognize her, and it was all the sisters' fault.

The problem was, she likes the sisters. Except, you know, when she was trying to kill them, which so wasn't her fault. They just didn't like her very much right now, especially Piper. Phoebe had forgiven her; that was a start, at least, but Piper was just so stubborn. Kind of a bitch. "What good is being a witch if I can't force people to like me?" Billie pouts.

Oh, but she can! She smiles lopsidedly and gets off her bed. She digs around until she finds the notebook she wrote all the spells the sisters gave her in. And by gave her, she means let her borrow. And by borrow, she means the ones she stole.

Billie opens the notebook up and finds the "To Change Another's Mind" spell. She focuses on Piper and reads the spell aloud. If she could change Piper's mind, Paige would follow. "These words will travel/ Through the minds/ Of stubborn parties and unbind/ Thoughts too rigid to be kind/ A compromise will disentwine". Billie waits for like a second- the longest second ever- then takes out her cell phone. She starts to text: Will U B my friend?

---

Piper shoves a few of Wyatt's toys and Chris' diaper bag diaper bag at Leo. He juggles everything but doesn't drop them, especially Chris. Piper kneels to Wyatt's level. "You be a good boy for Daddy, okay?" He doesn't look at her. Piper nods. "Okay." Piper pats Wyatt on the head and stands. Next, it's Chris' turn. "Bye, baby." Chris squeals delightedly. "Have fun at the street fair."

"We will," Leo says, a bit too excitedly.

"Honey?"

"Huh?"

"I was talking to the boys."

Leo's face falls a little. "Oh."

Piper has to smile at her husband. "You too, Leo" she says.

Leo smiles again. Then a dark shadow passes over his face. "Be careful, Piper. I don't want to lose you."

"Are you kidding? The Angel of Destiny couldn't keep us apart, and she's tried," Piper forces a smile. She kisses her husband and sends him off.

Leo takes Wyatt's hand and leaves with the boys. "And we're gonna ride rides, and play games, and eat lots and lots of hot dogs and cotton candy..." The moment they're gone, the smile fades from Piper's face.

"He used to be much better at rallying the troops," Paige says, only half-kidding.

"He's been through a lot," Piper sighs. She sounds tired. She looks at her sisters. "We all have." Piper gets Billie's message. She checks it and snorts. "No freakin' way."

---

Billie pouts. She checks her phone again, as if she could make Piper respond. She finally just gives on the spell idea. "The sisters are happiest when they're all together, fighting demons," she tells herself. "So I'll make it so that's all they do. All of the Halliwell sisters together, fighting demons." She sits down cross-legged on the floor. She squeezes her eyes shut tight. She opens one eye, then the other, as if some other being could hear her. Perhaps the Elders. "But only for a little while." Billie closes her eyes again and mutters, her lips puckered. "Then they'll have to like me."

---

Up in the attic, Phoebe lands on Ashlar's entry in The Book of Shadows. The Book describes him thusly: _Ashlar has the ability to cross dimensions and possesses __cross-dimensional awareness. Beware, for in time, this can lead to the power of projection. Death and firey destruction follow him wherever he goes. He has been vanquished before, but like the Phoenix, he rises from the ashes, stronger than ever, so use the vanquishing spell with caution. Spell to Vanquish Ashlar: __Demon of dimensions galore/ It's fire that you adore/ But with this vanquish, you shall rise no more. _Phoebe pounds the book in self-satisfaction. _"_"That's him. That's our demon."

Phoebe flips back a few pages and deftly copies a summoning spell onto a piece of paper, tading the name 'Balthazar' for 'Ashlar', while Paige finishes arranging the crystals on the floor to trap The Source. Paige takes a deep breath, but her voice still quivers. "Well, ladies. I guess this is it."

Piper shakes her head in disbelief. "I can't believe we're here again."

Phoebe brings the conversation back where it belongs. On her. "I had that premonition for a reason. We can change this. I know it. That's why we're summoning Ashlar to the attic."

"Yeah, but can we, really?" Piper asks. "Everyday it's another premonition, another ordeal. We can't really change anything. No one can."

"Aw, does someone need a hug?" Paige asks, trying to lighten the mood. But from the look on Piper's face, she can tell she failed miserably. Paige gives Piper a 'buck up, little camper' smile and squeezes her big sister's hand.

Phoebe takes the slip of paper and The Book over to her sisters. "Ready?" she asks.

"As I'll ever be," Piper responds flatly.

Phoebe takes Piper's other hand. The Charmed Ones steel themselves for the battle ahead.

---

Billie concentrates real hard and reminds herself what Lo Pan taught her, "Don't bend the spoon- imagine there is no spoon."

---

Ashlar appears as if out of nowhere. He looks just as surprised as the sisters. "The Charmed Ones? This isn't supposed to happen..." His eyes get all shifty. "Yet."

"Did you say the spell?" Paige asks her sisters, genuinely confused. "Wait... did I?"

Ashlar shrugs. "Oh well." He hurls a fireball at The Charmed Ones. Phoebe hoots and yodels and leaps back. "That's him! That's him!" Piper rolls her eyes and almost offers a "Good one, Feebs" as she flicks her hands in Ashlar's direction. Ashlar explodes. As the ash swirls around the room, the sisters gather quickly to read the vanishing spell. "Demon of dimensions galore/ It's fire that you adore--"

The ash comes together to create an eerie, negative image of the demon, much like the Romans trapped forever in ash at Pompeii. Fire flashes in the negative's eyes in a manner similar to The Source, and the ash crumbles. Ashlar stands in the negative's place, fully intact and alive.

"But with this vanquish, you shall rise no more."

---

Billie smiles smugly.

---

Ashlar howls and erupts into a fireball that expands to swallow The Charmed Ones whole. When the fire retracts, the demon- and The Charmed Ones- are gone.

END ACT ONE.

ACT TWO.

Ash swirls around the attic, making it eerily reminiscent of a nuclear winter. Piper struggles to regain consciousness. She moans, and her eyes flutter. She pulls herself up on her hands on knees. Her long hair hangs in her face. She nearly chokes on the ash. The air is so thick she can hardly see through the gray, and, aside from the swirl of ash, it's eerily still. "Phoebe?" she calls, and coughs as her lungs fill with ash. "Paige?" she croaks, her throat scratchy and clogged.

Her eyes slowly adjust. She recognizes a familiar shape lying motionless on the floor. Her mind flashes back to eight days ago, when she found her baby sister in that exact position under the rubble of the Manor.

Piper can't move. She's frozen to the spot, almost as if her own freeze backfired. She can't think. She can't even breathe, and this time it's not because of all that ash. She finally has to will herself forward. "Phoebe." She coughs again as she chokes on some more ash. She sucks in a lungful of air and crawls over to Phoebe. "Noooo," Piper moans, taking her sister into her arms. Tears and ash streak down her face. "No, not again."

Phoebe's eyes fly open. She gasps and sucks in her own lungful of ash. She coughs. "Wow. Thank God we didn't try this at my condo, huh?" Her voice sounds just as raspy as Piper's.

Piper is so surprised that, instead of telling her selfish sister to cram it, she laughs. She hugs Phoebe, just glad she's alive.

"Hey! What about me? I'm your sister too, remember?"

Piper looks over and sees Paige. Paige glares back, her hands on her hips, her lips puckered and glossy, upright and perfectly fine except for a small cut on her head and a thin layer of ash in her hair and on her clothes. Piper grabs Paige and pulls her into the hug as ash floats around her.

"I don't wanna jinx it..." Paige starts nervously.

"Then don't," Piper orders, getting up. She leaves the attic, as if ignoring the second part of Phoebe's premonition would make it not happen.

---

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige come down the stairs. They are covered in a thin layer of ash; it's in their hand, in their clothes, seeping into their skin. Every breath brings more ash into their lungs.

Paige inspects her red hair strand by strand, then finally just gives up. "I am never going to get all this ash out of my hair," she moans.

Phoebe has to one up her little sister. "At least you didn't just spend five hundred dollars at the salon."

Paige stares at the thing on Phoebe's head. "That cost five hundred?" Paige snickers. Then seeing the look on Phoebe's face, she quickly changes to a more sympathetic tone. "That cost five hundred."

"I may not be an empath anymore, but I can still tell when you're making fun of me, Paige."

Piper remains silent in horror. The living room is just as bad as the attic. There's ash everywhere and no way to see through it. "I'd really hate to be the one to clean all this up," Phoebe says, ever the empath.

"I don't mind doing it myself. Really, it's no be deal," Piper says, though her tone clearly implies otherwise.

"Good. Well, have fun." Paige already has her cell phone out. She pushes number one on her speed dial. If The Source wasn't going to come to complete Phoebe's premonition, and Piper seemed determined he/it wouldn't, then she'd rather be at home. With Henry. While she still can. And where The Source couldn't find her. Henry picks up on the second ring, and though she can recognize the voice, Paige has no idea what her husband is saying. The static is almost too much to bear, so she has to hang up and try again. The call doesn't even go through this time. "That's weird," Paige hears Phoebe mutter. She looks to her sister. "Dude! You too?"

"I can't get Coop on the phone!" Phoebe yodels, shaking her phone as if that could help.

"Oh, for goodness sake!" Piper practically shouts. "You two act like you've never been on a cell phone before!" She storms over and picks up the landline. She dials Leo's cell phone. She listens for a moment and frowns.

"Let me guess. Static?"

Piper irritably shushes Paige. She tries another number and gets what she thinks is their dad's answer machine. "Hi, Dad. It's Piper. Don't worry, we're fine, the boys are fine. Call me when you get this message."

"If you get this message," Paige mutters, her feeling of dread increasing. She doesn't have to be an empath, or a former empath, or whatever, to know that Phoebe feels it too, which makes it that much more scary. Paige doesn't know if it was because of the premonitions or what, but Phoebe always was the most intuitive.

"No hurry. Bye." Piper hangs up. Next, she tries Agent Murphy, and the club. Static and more static. She refuses to call Billie. Piper practically slams the phone down. "Dammit!"

"Language," Paige tries to joke, like she always does when she's nervous, then startles at the look Piper gives her. "Ew. Guess not." Maybe her big sister was just as scared as she was. Maybe...

An air raid siren interrupts Paige's thoughts. She exchanges a glance with her sisters. An air raid siren? In San Francisco? Paige wonders vaguely about terrorists and whether or not the threat color level matched. Outside, through the ash and over the siren, she can hear the sound of terrified birds taking flight.

And then silence. Darkness grips the manor. It surrounds the sisters, threatening to consume them, to take them over. They can't see anything. They hope there's nothing to see. "That can't be good," Paige mutters. She and Phoebe unconsciously move to Piper's side as the siren falls silent.

Phoebe hears it first. A quiet twittering. "Paige, your lighter," she whispers. Paige fumbles around in her pocket and hands it over. Phoebe flicks the lighter. She peers through the tiny circle of light. Black mold creeps up the wall. Phoebe follows the mold with her eyes as it devours the wall, the ceiling.

The twittering grows louder. Phoebe moves the lighter towards the sound. An angry horde of demonic beings descend upon them. They seem to stare at her from their empty sockets. Blood drools from their gaping maws. "Blow 'em up, Piper! Blow 'em up!" Phoebe hoots and hollers and yodels.

Piper flicks her wrists, but the demonic creatures don't blow up. She shakes her hands, and tries again. Again she gets nothing. The creatures get closer, their twittering grows louder. "Uh... not good."

"I'll orb us out of here." Paige puts one hand on Phoebe's shoulder, the other on Piper's. She closes her eyes, and nothing. Paige opens one eye, then the other. "Did I orb?"

"Not even a little bit," Piper snarks.

"Okay then," Paige says, as the creatures surround them and the lighter goes out. "We are so screwed."

END ACT TWO.

ACT THREE.

The sun shines in the bright blue sky. Leo frowns. He had recognized Piper's voice immediately, but could only make out every fourth word or so before she had given up. He tries to call her back, right there in the middle of that big street fair crowd, but she doesn't answer. "Okay, boys," Leo says, keeping his voice light and not at all worried about their mommy so as not to worry them, "It's time to go home."

Wyatt doesn't complain. He just continues to stare blankly as his father leads him back to the Grand Cherokee.

---

The Darkness pulls away from the sisters, revealing their empty living room. The creatures are gone, almost as if they were never even there. Sunlight pokes through the ash cloud as best it can.

"What the hell is going on?!" Piper demands.

"I think maybe you got the Hell part right," Phoebe says.

Piper just kind of gets an 'of course' look on her face. "Oh... crap."

"In my premonition, we died," Phoebe reminds them. "Maybe..." she just kind of shrugs and gestures around her. "I mean, that explosion was pretty big."

"All those Innocents we saved and we wind up in Hell? The universe cannot be that lame," Paige grumps.

"Paige, get the Book," Piper orders. The Elders must be laughing their asses off right now, but Piper wasn't going to give those bastards the satisfaction. "We are going to find a way out of here, even if it kills us again."

Ashlar watches nearby, hidden from The Charmed Ones. It amuses him how Good always means stupid. He was going to have some fun with these three.

---

"Piper!" Leo calls. He's barely past the threshold and already he's getting frantic. Again, he calls for his wife, and again, she doesn't answer. He sends Wyatt upstairs, and has him orb Chris with him. He tries to sense Piper, or even one of her sisters, but that doesn't work; it hasn't for a while. Sometimes he really missed being a whitelighter.

He pulls his cell phone, almost calls Billie, but knowing how much Piper hates her right now, decides it probably wouldn't be such a good idea. Leo sighs. He loves Piper, had become mortal for her, but sometimes he just didn't understand her. Billie had made good, after all. She had helped them to defeat Christy. Leo just wishes Piper could forgive and forget. He decides to talk to her tonight about Billie, get her to see reason. That is, if Leo ever saw Piper again.

"Piper!" he yells, his voice quivering. He can feel the panic rising. Something is definitely not right. He hurries into the living room, past the couch. "Piper!"

---

A gust of air rushes past Piper as she stands by the couch. "Leo," she breathes, before she even realizes it.

---

Whatever it is, Leo feels it too. "Piper. You're here."

---

Phoebe turns to her sister. "What was that, honey?"

Piper frowns. She had felt an connection to her husband, but it's gone now. Paige returns with the Book of Shadows, so Piper pushes Leo out of her mind. "Nothing." She takes the Book from Paige and goes through it until she finds Ashlar's entry. She scans the description. "Ah-ha!"

"What? What is it?" Paige asks. Piper lets her read aloud from the Book. "Ashlar has the ability to cross dimensions and possesses cross-dimensional awareness. Beware, for in time, this can lead to the power of projection." Paige finally gets it. "We must be in one of Ashlar's hell dimensions! That's why our active powers don't work!" she exclaims. "Oh... that's bad."

"No, it's good," Phoebe corrects her. Paige looks skeptical. "That means we can get out."

Paige looks to Piper. Piper just kind of nods. Paige sighs, and her head bobs. "All right. What do we have to do?"

---

"We have to do something," Victor says. He had arrived at the manor only moments before, playing Piper's message for Leo without even so much as a hello. It was hard to make out through the static, but what they could decipher didn't sound good. " Dad... Piper... boys... message... hurry." Leo assured Victor that the boys were fine. They were, in fact, upstairs. Of course, Wyatt was doing God knows what to Chris, but that thought didn't even occur to Leo.

And now Victor was giving Leo that look, the look that said this was all Leo's fault. "You're their whitelighter! Do something!"

"Was their whitelighter," Leo reminds him. He is trying to keep calm, but Victor isn't making it easy. "I'm mortal now."

"Well, you're still her husband, aren't you?"

That's it. Leo finally just loses it. "Of course I'm her husband!" His voice squeaks a little. If he wasn't a pacifist by nature, he would hit Victor right in his face. His wife and her sisters were in another dimension, or invisible, or something else not here, possibly at the hands of The Source Of All Evil, and all Victor could do was blame him, as usual.

"Then do something, dammit!"

But what could he do? He couldn't go to the Elders anymore. He couldn't even orb. And Daryl had moved to the east coast to escape all this.

A pink heart materializes. It just floats there in the air a moment, then a splash of pink light spreads until Coop and Henry appear. "Something's happened to Phoebe." And then Coop remembers Henry. "Oh, and Paige."

Henry shakes his head a bit to clear it, still a little woozy from the trip. "Whoa."

"Just breathe," Coop tells him. Henry takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out.

Leo asks Coop if he can sense where Phoebe is, but Coop just shakes his head. "I can't sense her. Believe me, I've tried. Which means she's probably--"

Leo doesn't let Coop finish. "No. She's not dead. Piper is not dead. I'd feel it."

"In a hell dimension," Coop finishes soothingly. His voice seems to be having a calming effect on Henry and Victor, but it's not working on Leo. If anything, it's making things worse. Leo wondered vaguely if he sounded like that when he was a whitelighter. He suddenly understood why Piper used to blow him up all the time, and why she always talked about doing the same thing to Billie.

"Billie!" Leo suddenly doesn't care how much Piper hated Billie, or that Billie had tried- and succeeded- to kill his sisters-in-law. All he cares about is getting his family home safe, and Billie is the only one who can do it. Leo snatches up the landline and quickly dials the teen witch's number. He waits impatiently for her to pick up. "Come on. Come on!"

Victor turns to Coop. "A hell dimension?"

"This dimension, the one we live in, is not the only one," Coop explains. "There are literally thousands of others that co-exist with ours. Some can be made accessible by portals, others by spells. There are certain demons that possess the power to know what's going on in any given dimension at any time, or even to cross dimensions and invade ours."

"That sounds... pleasant," Henry says.

Billie picks up on the sixth ring. Leo barely waits for her to finish her greeting before blurting out, "HiBillieit'sLeohaveyouseenthesisters?"

"No. And I don't want to."

"Something happened to them, I think," Leo says. "I need your help."

There's a long pause. When she finally speaks, she doesn't sound so cocky, so sure. She sounds almost afraid. And maybe a little guilty. "I'm coming over."

Leo hangs up. He just feels so helpless, so... mortal. He looks to Victor, and Victor looks like he wants to say something else, but Leo just tells him "Don't." Maybe seeing the look on Leo's face, Victor actually stays quiet. Maybe Victor isn't so bad, after all.

The door bursts open, startling all four men. Billie bursts in and tornados her way up the stairs. She hears Leo call her name, but she just gives him a dismissive wave.- "Nope!"- and continues to the boys' room. She's got a job to do.

---

Wyatt stands over his baby brother's crib. He just stares at Chris with vacant eyes. Auntie Billie says his name behind him, so he moves his eyes over to her.

Billie kneels in front of him, her blonde hair fried, her dark makeup forming raccoon rings around her eyes. Her overly-glossed lips seemed to distract even Chris. "Wyatt?" He lets her take his hand and gently ease him to her. "Your mommy needs your help. You want to help Mommy?" Wyatt nods, which allows Billie a half-smile. "Good boy. Can you find Mommy? Find Mommy?" Wyatt closes his eyes and concentrates. "Good boy. Good boy!" She was this close to giving him a treat or asking him if he wanted to go for a walky. "Find Mommy. Find--"

Wyatt orbs out of there, as much to shut her up as to find his mom. His orbs vanish just as Leo hurries into the room. He looks around and immediately notices that his eldest boy is missing. "Billie? Where's Wyatt?"

Billie stands, all proud of herself and frizzy-haired. "I sent him after Piper."

She can tell by the look on his face that was the wrong thing to do before he even says anything. "What?!" he practically yells, prompting Chris to start crying.

At the dorm, Billie had tried to call the sisters back herself, but she couldn't remember the dimension she projected them to. She wasn't stupid or anything, she just... wasn't smart. "Wyatt is supposed to be this super fantastical magic being, so I just thought--"

"That's the problem, Billie. You didn't think. You never think! And now my son could very well be danger."

"You asked for my help," Billie pouts, her arms folded across her chest. "So I helped."

"So you could scry for them! Or use the 'To Call a Lost Witch' spell!"

Billie blinks. "Oh."

---

Paige finishes arranging the crystals in a circle. She still doesn't see why she always has to do all the fetching around here. "Done!" Paige stands. The plan was to summon Ashlar into the circle, then torture him until he agreed to return them to their own dimension. That part was always fun... or so Paige heard. Not that she knew from personal experience or anything.

Phoebe pulls out the summoning spell. She wipes away the thin layer of dust that immediately seems to gather. "Magic forces black and white/ Reaching out through space and light-- " Phoebe stops, and suddenly starts hooting and hollering and yodeling as Wyatt orbs in right in front of her. "How'd he how'd he how'd he--" she sputters. Demons she can handle, but her little nephew doing something they all thought was impossible, that's just freaking her out!

Piper goes right to Wyatt. She bends down to his level. She slips her hair behind her ear. "Wyatt... how did you get here, little man?"

"Yeah. I thought our active powers don't work her," Paige says. She peers at her nephew. "How'd you do that, little dude?"

The air raid siren blares. Birds take flight. The Darkness descends. Piper reaches for Wyatt's hand, but Wyatt is nowhere to be found.

END ACT THREE.

ACT FOUR.

"Wyatt?!" Panic creeps into Piper's voice. It rises in pitch. She can't see anything but The Darkness, and her voice is the only thing she can hear in the deathly silence. "Wyatt, this isn't funny!" Piper stomps her foot in frustration and fear. "Wyatt Matthew Halliwell!"

"PIPER LOOK OUT!"

Piper whirls on instinct. A huge blade slices through the air. It glistens, even in The Darkness. She ducks. She can feel the air whooshing past. A chunk of her ash covered hair falls to the floor. The blade comes for her again. It slices her cheek, making her bleed. Her blood sizzles on contact with the ash. But the only pain she feels is the pain of losing her son.

"Piper!" She can hear her sisters' footsteps running towards her.

So can the demonic creature wielding the giant blade. It swings the blade blindly. Phoebe dodges and plants a Manolo Blahnik in the thing's stomach. "Hi'ya!" The creature stumbles back from the force of her kick and drops the blade. He goes for it, but Phoebe stomps down, driving all five and a half inches of heel through its hand. Bones break and blood flies. The creature growls and claws blindly for her with its good hand. Phoebe digs deeper. The hand explodes, and a sea of giant bugs pour out.

The demonic creature fumbles for his blade with his good hand. Bugs and chucks of flesh the sisters cling to the sisters. They try to shake them out of their clothes, their hair, brush them off their faces, but the rat sized cockroaches are everywhere. One of them drops down the front of the napkin Phoebe calls a blouse. Luckily she's not bound by a bra, and she's able to shake it out.

Paige barely has time to miss the ash before one of the bugs burrows into her skin. She can feel it eating muscle and peeling tissue away from the bone. She shrieks and drops the Book of Shadows. As Phoebe bemoans the fate of her Manolo Blahnik, which is dripping with gooey, green bug blood, Piper grabs Paige's arm. The skin ripples as the bug squirms just under the surface. Piper locks eyes with Paige. Paige nods and grits her teeth. "Do it." She squeezes her eyes shut as the bug chomps bone. With her left hand, Piper squeezes Paige's arm to lock the bug in place. The bug hisses and chomps its teeth in impotent rage. With her right hand, Piper digs into the hole the bug already made. Her nails brush against something crunchy and rotten. Piper squeezes what she hopes is the bug between her nail. It screeches. Piper pulls the bug out of Paige, and its all too human face twists into a very real expression of hate. It growls at Piper and chomps its teeth. Piper drops the bug to the ground. It lands on its shell. Its legs wave in the air. It's jaws clink. Blood mixed with saliva flies from its mouth. Its human eyes roll in their sockets. "Chew on this!" Paige stomps down on the bug. Green blood and little black bits spray out from under her combat boot.

An army of the human faced bugs march in on them from behind. Wave after wave of the little soldiers comes for the soldiers. "Bug spray," Paige mumbles, scooping up the Book of Shadows and holding it protectively to her chest. She moves instinctively so that her back is to Piper's. "Shoulda used bug spray."

The demonic creature's fingers brush against the blade. It closes its hand around the handle. It rises to its feet. It towers over even Paige. It raises its blade at Phoebe, but Phoebe's too busy futzing with her Manolo Blahnik to notice. She shakes the shoe, hoping to get some of the blood off, but there's no way that green goo is ever coming out of the ribbon. Piper suddenly swipes the shoe. "Hey!" Phoebe exclaims, the baby sister once again coming out. "That's mine!"

Piper drives all five inches of heel into the creature's forehead. It releases a howl that sounds like it comes from the deepest of hells and swings out blindly with the blade. Piper shoves Phoebe out of its way.

The Darkness recedes, taking the human bug army and the demonic blade-wielding creature with it. The sisters just stand there, in silence and shock. "Is everyone okay?" Piper asks.

Phoebe retrieves her fallen shoe. She holds it up for all to see. "My shoe's not," Phoebe pouts. Paige rolls her eyes.

"Forget the shoe! I'll buy you more shoes- after we get my son back."

---

Ashlar slowly uncovers Wyatt's mouth. Freaking out The Charmed Ones was fun. That's why he grabbed their progeny as The Darkness fell. The Darkness and a missing son? Those are some good times, there. "Don't scream."

_Why would I scream? _

Ashlar looks around, confused. It was Wyatt's voice all right. But Wyatt's lips never even moved. Suddenly, Wyatt blinks- very disconcerting because the boy never blinks.

"I'll be back," Ashlar says, then cringes at how stupid he sounds. The fire gets too much for him (or maybe it's just the use of such a hackneyed cliché?) and he howls and explodes.

Wyatt giggles.

Piper would recognize that sound anywhere. "Wyatt!" She bolts right for her son and scoops him up into her arms. He is covered in ash, but not all of it is from the air. A lot of it came from Ashlar. She hugs him tight. Wyatt merely tolerates it when Phoebe and Paige join in on the family bonding.

"There's my favorite nephew! Ooh, I could eat him up!"

"Phoebe, what did I tell you about that?"

Phoebe takes a moment to consider this, then continues, "Ooh, I could smush you! Ooh, I could just smush your little face!" She takes Wyatt from Piper and squeezes him tight. "I just love him so much!"

"Okay, don't squish the boy," Piper says, taking him back. "He has to breathe."

"Wait until he gets us outta here," Paige adds. "Then squish him." Wyatt shoots her a look similar to one Piper would give her. Paige crinkles her nose. "Ew."

Ash swirls around the room, different somehow than the ash already there. Wyatt points one floating piece of ash out to his mom. Piper looks at it, then Wyatt. She tells her sisters to get ready, and the ash comes together to form the demon. "Crystals!" Paige shouts. She waves her free hand, and a circle of crystals locks Ashlar in.

"Think you can torture me, witch?" Ashlar sneers, looking right at Paige. "I know how these things work. As long as I stay in the middle, I'm safe."

"Oh yeah?"

Ashlar grins. "Yeah." It seems almost like a challenge.

Paige grabs the crystal and slams it down. Electricity bounces from crystal to crystal. It surges through Ashlar, electrocuting him. But the upper-level demon doesn't even flinch. Piper turns Wyatt away and covers his eyes so he doesn't have to witness the d-e-m-o-n being tortured (or rather, not being tortured), but Wyatt moves his mom's hand away so that he gets a front row seat.

"Uh, why isn't it working?" Paige asks her sisters. Phoebe urges her to try again. Paige does. Ashlar just stands there smugly, smirking as the electricity surges through his toned body.

Piper just kind of sighs. "Just get us out of here and we'll let you go."

"Or we'll vanquish you," Phoebe adds.

"Oh, this? You think I did this?" Ashlar kind of giggles. "Thanks!"

"You mean you didn't create this?" Phoebe asks, not quite ready to believe him yet.

"No," Ashlar says. "It's fun though, isn't it?"

"He's lying." Paige looks right at Ashlar. "Demons lie!" She slams the crystal down again. Another surge of electricity tears through him. Ashlar closes his eyes and spreads his arms out to take it all in.

"Paige!" Phoebe exclaims. "That's clearly not helping."

Paige lets go of the crystal. The electricity stops. "Was it good for you?" Ashlar asks, sweat glistening on his face. He shivers, his body alive with pleasure.

Paige makes a face. "Ew."

Ashlar laughs. "Hey. I got mine."

Phoebe grabs the crystal from Paige and slams it down herself. Ashlar gets another orgasmic shock. "Who's your daddy?" he asks her when he's finished.

"Not you," Phoebe says, and shocks him again.

"Who put us here?" Piper asks quietly, though the tone in her voice indicates she already knows the answer.

"Who do you think?" Ashlar says pointedly. "Who's the one witch you know- besides your son there- who possesses the gift of projection?"

Piper's face darkens. "Billie," she practically growls.

"Billie wouldn't do that," Phoebe says. Clearly, she hasn't met Billie. Paige says as much.

"How do we get out of here?" Piper asks Ashlar.

"Ask Wyatt."

Piper looks down at her son. It often scared her when she thought about just how powerful her four year old son really was. It scared her even more when she thought about demons thinking about just how powerful he was, and what they could do with that power. She looks back up at the demon. "Say it."

Ashlar looks confused. "Um... I'm your daddy?"

But her sisters know she means. Paige quickly opens the Book of Shadows to Ashlar's entry, and The Charmed Ones recite the spell together. "Demon of dimensions galore/ It's fire that you adore/ But with this vanquish, you shall rise no more!"

The fire starts in the middle of Ashlar's chest. The cockiness fades from his face. "Wait! No!" The fire quickly spreads throughout his entire body until he is consumed by flame. Ashlar howls in agony and rage and explodes.

END ACT FOUR.

ACT FIVE.

The Charmed Ones wait. But nothing happens. Ash swirls around them, but it's not from Ashlar. It's from whatever dimension they're in. "Did we get him?" Paige asks.

"For now," Piper responds flatly. "What do you think, little man?" She asks, looking to her son and adjusting her voice accordingly. "Think you can get us home?"

"What about Ashlar?" Phoebe reminds them. "He's still out there."

Piper dismisses him the same way she dismissed The Source earlier. "Later. Wyatt?"

Wyatt closes his eyes and concentrates.

---

The ash-covered Charmed Ones and their eldest child appears in the middle of the living room, as if blinking into existence. Leo can barely breathe. "Piper? Wyatt?" He has to touch them, just to make sure they're really real. He takes them into his arms, holds her and their son. He just breathes her in. "Piper." He strokes her shiny hair. "You're back. You're back."

"Coop!" Phoebe squeals, throwing herself into her fiancée's arms. She and Coop

practically start dry-humping right there. Phoebe suddenly wishes for her desk as Paige and Henry share a similar greeting.

"I did it," Billie reminds everyone, her head bobbing, her overly glossed lips puckered, the scrying crystal hanging from her hand by its chain. "I brought you back."

Piper makes sure Leo's got Wyatt, then hauls off and cold clocks Billie. Phoebe gasps and runs to Billie. Piper towers over Billie. She glares down at her. Billie clutches her eye, which will surely be black tomorrow. "You come near me or my sons again and I will kill you. Now get out of my house." When Billie doesn't move right away, she yells, "NOW!"

Billie startles. She scrambles to her feet and scurries away.

A shadow creeps over the top of The Charmed Ones. They look up to see The Source towering over them. "My turn," he growls.

"Home!" Paige shouts and wave her hand, instinctively orbing their men out of there just as The Source shoots a his special brand of fireball at Piper. The rotating axis hits her, hard, throwing her back over the couch. She hits the wall with a sickening splat. She slides to the ground and is still.

Phoebe yells Piper's name and tries to run to her. The Source fires a lightening bolt. Phoebe's body jolts and jerks as lightening shoots through her body. Piper groans and fights unconsciousness as Phoebe collapses beside her. "No!" Paige cries out.

The Source turns to the stunned Paige. "Two down," he snarls. He raises his hand at Paige.

Paige raises her own hand to the chandelier. "Chandelier!" she shouts. The Source looks up as the chandelier crashes onto his head. Paige orbs out with the Book of Shadows, but The Source just rises to his feet. He flicks his wrist and telekinetically sends her orbs into the wall behind her sisters. Paige tumbles to the ground in a heap.

The Source glides across the room. His black robe billows around him. Again, he towers over the fallen Charmed Ones. Piper struggles to raise her head. Blood trickles from her mouth, her nose, her ears. It hurts her to breathe, much less to talk, but still she manages to get out, "You're... not... touching... my sisters."

The Source chuckles, amused. "I like you. Too bad I have to kill you now." He conjures the fireball to end all fireballs between his taloned hands. He raises his arms high over his head. Piper shields her little sisters as best she can and closes her eyes to prepare herself.

A telekinetic force barrels into The Source. He flies back into the wall. He struggles and snarls against the invisible force that holds him there. "Release me!"

Another witch kneels beside the fallen Charmed Ones. She checks Phoebe and Paige's pulses. Still alive. She gently takes Piper's chin into her hands and raises her head to look into her eyes. "Piper? Piper, honey, look at me."

Piper blinks, her head fuzzy, trying to focus. She recognizes the dark hair, the light face, the warm, caring eyes. She must be hallucinating. She's got to be. But she so desperately wants it to be true. "Prue?" Piper croaks. "Is it really you?"

Prue takes Phoebe and Paige's hands. She stares down The Source. "Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda."

A mushrooming fireball engulfs the lower part of The Source's body. He squirms against the wall.

"Astrid, Helena, Laura, and Grace," Piper continues, her voice quivering.

The fire spreads to The Source's chest.

"Halliwell witches, stand strong beside us. Vanquish this evil--"

"--from time and space," the two sisters finish together.

The fireball engulfs The Source. It pushes him upwards towards the ceiling as a heated wind races through the living room. The Source collapses into the flames and explodes.

Prue takes Piper into her arms. Piper buries her face in Prue's chest and cries. Prue strokes her hair and rocks her soothingly.

Paige groans as she slowly returns to consciousness. She just lays there, stiff and sore. It's a while before she can even sit up. She sees Piper and... "Prue?" Paige asks. She must have hit her head harder than she thought.

"It's me, little sister," Prue assures her, still cradling Piper. "It's Prue."

Paige shakes her head to clear it the way that Henry had earlier. She sees Phoebe, motionless on the ground, and pushes Prue's mysterious- not to mention impossible- appearance out of her mind. She holds her hands over Phoebe and applies the tingly whitelighter touch. A warm glow spreads over her sister's still body, then vanishes. Phoebe opens her eyes and slowly sits up. "You okay?" Paige asks.

But if Phoebe hears her, she pretends not to. "Prue!" she gasps, and bounds over to her oldest sister. She throws her arms around Prue and presses her cheek to Prue's back.

Prue and Piper and Phoebe hug, leaving Paige off to the side. Alone.

END ACT FIVE.

FADE OUT.


End file.
